Who are some of the villains that have stood out as scary to you?
For me, it would have to be, hands down, Alan Rickman, all the way across the board. Remember him? Die Hard – Hans Gruber (the mastermind thief), Robin Hood – the Sheriff of Nottingham (Ewww!), Harry Potter series – Severus Snape. I know he’s played a few good guys but the guy embodies BAD so well, I just love to watch him. Why? Because he makes you BELIEVE he’s bad. We know he’s out of his mind and crazy, and we don’t know what to expect except….Badness.
We’re going to be talking this week about what makes a great villain – 4 key components (and there are others, also, so we’ll be starting a thread on Voices to discuss Villains!) that you can build into your villain.
If you’re wondering where this fits into the heroes journey, we’re onto the place where the Hero has to overcome temptation. Often, the villain knows just what it will take to turn the hero, and attempts to seduce him away from the goal. Always, he sets up roadblocks to discourage and defeat. His entire purpose is to instill fear and doubt (like we talked about yesterday).
So what’s the first key? BELIEABILITY. We as the reader (and the hero) have to believe that the Villain is truly….villainous. We have to believe in our hearts that he will do what he says.
But wait, you say, what about in a suspense or mystery where we don’t know who the villain is until the end? Believing a villain is not about looking at the villain and measuring him up (although we can do that) – it’s about RESULTS. A villain isn’t a villain based on what he says about himself…but what he DOES.
If you want to create believably for your villain, make him do something villainous in the beginning to drive that belief home. Show him in action, or show us his handiwork. Same goes for villains that take the form of nature or circumstances. In Dante’s Peak, the villain is the Volcano. To prove the believability of this threat, the movie opens with our hero trying to outrun another volcano – only to have his sweetheart, in the car next to him, die from a lava ball.
Ask: What can you do at the beginning of the book to prove to the reader that your villain means what he says?
Believability = Alan Rickman = Please leave the lights on. (I’ll be up all night reading anyway).
Don’t forget to post your favorite Villain – books or movies! We’ll draw from the posts one person to get a copy of my new book – Finding Stefanie. See you tomorrow!
Comments 6
I would have to say my favorite villian from a book is the character Edglar Foreman Vess from “Intensity” by Dean Koontz. I was scared half to death after reading that book. Couldn’t even watch the TV movie (character played by John C. McGinley).
My favorite actor who does movie villians is Sean Bean (National Treasure, Goldeneye, Lord of the Rings Trilogy). He does the best “I’m your friend, but now I’m betraying you” characters. And that’s horrible for your hero, to have his friend and confidant, the person who knows his strengths and weaknesses, whom he’s trusted, to turn on him and be torn apart by the hero’s sense of justice versus his desire to save his friend while dealing with the pain of betrayal.
I’d have to agree about Alan Rickman. Eeww. I used to love Billy Campbell, until I saw him in the movie ENOUGH with J-Lo. The guy could justify anything as though his actions made perfect sense. Then there’s Glenn Close in FATAL ATTRACTION. Bad, bad lady.
One of the creepiest literary villains I’ve encountered is Dr. Ahriman in Dean Koontz’s False Memory. Dr. Ahriman creates mind control pathways in his patients so that, using code words to put them in an altered state of consciousness, he can manipulate them into unknowingly indulging his fantasies.
Oh, I love the comment about Sean Bean – yes, Betrayal is a GREAT element to a villain. I blogged today about making it PERSONAL and betrayal is the ultimate personal threat! GREAT comment, Denice
Thanks!
I would have to agree about Sean Bean. He’s great in Patriot Games. One scary dude. Especially when he’s going after Jack and his family. Billy Campbell in Enough is a nasty villain too. Completely psycho. Especially when he says, “If I can’t have you, no one can.”
The villain that is just beyond creepy is Cary Elwes character in Kiss the Girls. The first time I saw that movie was unfortunately at night, and it was very intense. Especially when you didn’t know who Casanova is. Knowing he was lurking around. Preying on young women. Collecting them. He made my skin crawl.